A substrate with a transparent electrode, in which a transparent electrode layer is formed on a transparent substrate such as a film or glass, is used as a transparent electrode of a display of a touch panel, light-emitting device, photoelectric conversion device or the like. When a substrate with a transparent electrode is used for position detection of a capacitance touch panel, the transparent electrode layer is finely patterned. As a patterning method, for example, a method is used in which, after a transparent electrode layer is formed substantially over the entire surface of a transparent substrate, the transparent electrode layer is removed by etching or the like in a part of the plane. In this way, a substrate with a transparent electrode can be obtained in which a transparent electrode layer patterned into an electrode layer-formed part (also referred to as a “non-etched part”) and an electrode layer-non-formed part (also referred to as an “etched part”) is formed on a substrate.
For clearly displaying an image on a display, it is important to improve the transparency of the substrate with a transparent electrode. Further, in the substrate with a transparent electrode, in which the transparent electrode layer is patterned, it is required that the pattern of the transparent electrode layer be hardly visible.
For example, Patent Documents 1 and 2 propose a substrate with a transparent electrode in which a transparent electrode layer is formed on a transparent film with two transparent dielectric material layers interposed therebetween. Patent Document 1 proposes that, by setting the thickness and refractive index of each transparent dielectric material layer to specific values, a difference in transmittance and a Ab* between an electrode layer-formed part and an electrode layer-non-formed part are reduced. Patent Document 2 proposes that, by setting the thickness and refractive index of each transparent dielectric material layer to specific values, a difference in reflectance between an electrode layer-formed part and an electrode layer-non-formed part is reduced to suppress pattern visibility.
Patent Documents 3 and 4 disclose that a substrate with a transparent electrode, which includes three thin film layers having a specific thickness and a specific refractive index between a transparent film and a transparent electrode, has a high transmittance and has transmitted light b* in a specific range and thus is suitable for a resistive touch panel substrate. However, the visibility of a pattern when the transparent electrode layer is patterned was not discussed in Patent Documents 3 and 4.